January 30, 2015
Knowing that the bus from Barra de Navidad to Puerto Vallarta didn’t leave until
10:40, I had time to go for a run over the steep hill above the marina and
through the golf course. I had always
wondered why I never saw a soul on the golf course. Someone told me that the hotel guests don’t
get up early enough to play golf in the morning, so it is busy in the late
afternoon instead. After my run, I ate
breakfast and packed my duffle bag, even managing to cram my memory foam pad
inside. Then we took the water taxi
across the channel to the town and lugged my belongings clear across Barra to
the bus depot. We were early and the bus
was late, so we sat there for the better part of two hours before my bus
finally arrived and I said goodbye to Brad.
The bus from Barra was not a first class bus, but it was
comfortable enough. We didn’t actually
leave Barra until 11:10. The route wound
inland through non-descript low hills, fields of corn, and orchards of mango
trees. We stopped at numerous seemingly
nameless villages and roadside bus shelters.
The bus may not have served well known cities, but it was crowded with
passengers traveling from town to town and carrying all kinds of goods. One man carried two large bundles of brightly
colored hammocks. After about four
hours, we came to the intersection of the new road to Yelapa. The road was surfaced with pavers and
stretched off towards the mountains. We
headed further inland before climbing over the mountains and finally joining
the coast at Boca de Tomatlan. It took
us quite a while to drive across Puerto Vallarta during rush hour. By the time we reached the bus terminal, it
was 17:30.
Since I wasn’t sure exactly where I was and had a lot of
heavy baggage, I elected to take a taxi back to La Cruz, which also allowed me
to avoid schlepping my bags up the 134 stairs to my apartment. I had a nice young taxi driver and he only
charged me 230 pesos (about $17) for the ride.
I was tired and didn’t want to move from my apartment that evening, so
peeled open an envelope of chilorio (spicy shredded pork) and ate that with
tostadas (crispy fried corn tortillas) for dinner.
January 31, 2015
I spent a very pleasant last morning by myself and then
hopped on a bus about 13:30 to go meet my cousin, Tiffany, at the airport. Her plane was slightly delayed so, despite
having checked with her to be sure she was actually on the plane and checked
with the airport to determine the projected time of landing, I still had to
wait for about 45 minutes before Tiffany managed to get her passport stamped
and luggage recovered. We walked across
the pedestrian walkway and took a bus completely devoid of shock absorbers back
to La Cruz where I introduced Tiffany to my 134 stairs.
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| The Gathering Clouds Were Spectacular |
After getting Tiffany settled in her room, we headed for
town. Our first stop was La Glorieta de
Enrique where we celebrated her arrival with margaritas and coconut
shrimp. Then we continued on to the
Gecko Rojo for another round of margaritas.
We hung out there until the band started to get noisy. Then we returned to my place and called it an
early evening.
February 1, 2015
Tiffany’s visit gave me an excuse to go to the Gecko Rojo
for eggs Benedict and mimosas on Sunday morning. They had a local fellow singing and playing
mellow keyboard who had a lively sense of humor and did numbers such as I Left My Wife in San Francisco. The eggs were tasty, included a mimosa in
the price, and were more reasonable than I expected. We relaxed there, using the internet (mine
wasn’t functioning that morning) for some time and then wandered over to check
out the farmers’ market. Neither of us
were big shoppers and the food offerings were weak on Paleo choices, but I did
buy some strawberries. Finally, we
stopped at Charlie’s Place to scope out the options for Superbowl parties later
and then caught a bus to Mega to get cash for Tiffany and buy groceries.
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| Rain in Bucerias |
While we were in the Mega, it started to pour. We thought it might pass, so bought cups of
coffee and sat in the café, hoping vainly that it would clear. When it became apparent that we could be
stuck there all day, we packed up our groceries and made a run for the bus
shelter. Fortunately, the bus had just
arrived so we were able to dash right inside.
I had to stand at first, but we eventually got seats and could watch the
rivers of water running down all the side streets. I was a bit concerned about crossing the
arroyo where the water flows across the road, but the bus plowed right through
with no trouble. The rain was lighter
when we stepped off the bus in La Cruz, so we managed to get up the hill
without getting drenched to the skin.
The idea of going out in the rain to watch the Superbowl
didn’t appeal to either of us, so we watched it in Spanish on my
television. (The first time I had
watched it since I arrived.) The trouble
with watching the Superbowl in Mexico is that you don’t get to see the
wonderful commercials broadcast in the United States. Since I couldn’t have cared less about the
game, I studied languages with my headphones on and just checked on the score
now and then. Later on, I cooked chicken
breasts and curried cauliflower and made us a salad. We enjoyed our dinner and a bottle of wine
and then Tiffany hit the hay early while I stayed up, playing the guitar.
February 2, 2015
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| Rainy Morning in La Cruz |
One o’clock in the morning saw both of us standing at the
windows, staring in awe at the squall raging outside. I had to close the windows because the rain
was blowing sideways. Palm trees were
thrashing and Tiffany was wondering whether she hadn’t just arrived in the path
of a hurricane. We managed to go back to
sleep, but I was awake again by 6:00 because the sound of the rain pouring down
on the concrete outside my window was deafening.
We were supposed to have gone out on the Chica Locca for a
whale watching booze cruise that day, but it was clear that it was going to be
cancelled. We stayed in a lounged around
all day. About 17:00, I received a
Facebook message from my friend, Charlotte from Pegasus, telling me to keep an eye out for her friends, Evan and
MaryLou on Windward Star. She must have messaged us both at the
same time because minutes later I heard Evan on the radio, asking the fleet if
anyone knew Rene from Fool’s Castle. I answered his hail and we agreed to meet
that evening.
There was a break in the weather when we headed down the
hill to meet Even and MaryLou at Philo’s.
We had a drink there and, when the band started up, we relocated to La
Cava de Martinez where they had Monday fiesta night with a good mariachi
band. The service was rather terrible
because they were packed and seemed to have only one waiter, but the food was
delicious as always. We had fun chatting
and listening to the music. The band had
a talented (unlike most in La Cruz) female singer wearing a cute matador
costume. We stayed out until after 22:00
and, unfortunately, the rain resumed.
Everyplace else on the main drag was shuttered by the time we headed
home, dashing from overhang to overhang, through the rain.
February 3, 2015
Tiffany had said that she wanted to do nothing but eat,
sleep and drink on her vacation and that is pretty much all we did on
Tuesday. It rained most of the day, so
we stayed in and did a lot of reading. I
cooked dinner and we drank a bottle of red wine. It was very relaxing.
February 4, 2015
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| The Chica Locca |
The weather finally cleared on Wednesday and there wasn’t a
cloud in the sky. It was still a little
cooler than normal, but was a lovely day to go whale watching on the Chica
Locca. We arrived at the boat about 9:30
and left the marina by 10:00. They
immediately served us coffee and juice.
I resisted at first, but caved in when they offered me coffee with
Bailey’s. Once we were underway, they
served us fruit and pastries. We motored
out into the bay and headed towards the Marietas Islands, slowing down now and
then to watch whales.
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| Humpback Whale |
Humpback whales
come to Banderas Bay to mate and then return to give birth. We saw many of them. Never before had I been able to capture any
with my camera, but they were so numerous that I managed to get a few decent
shots. Of course it helped that I wasn’t
also trying to sail the boat and could concentrate on following their movements
with my lens.
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| Whale Tail |
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| One of the Marietas Islands |
Since Tiffany and I both try to eat Paleo, I had ordered
gluten free meals, thinking they were more likely to conform to our diet than
any other option. That turned out to be
a good decision because the standard lunch was a very bready chicken sandwich,
but we got a lovely salad with slices of chicken breast rolled around peppers
and cucumber. There was an open bar, so
we drank margaritas and relaxed. Once
lunch was over, we headed for home, once again stopping to watch whales and
dolphins. They cranked up the music and
people started to dance. There was a
group of nurses who must have been taking pole dancing classes because they
were quite adept at dancing using the poles supporting the roof of the boat,
much to the delight of the all male crew.
We dallied along the shore between Punta de Mita and La Cruz and didn’t
return to the marina until nearly 18:00.
It was a wonderful day.
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| Rocks Off La Cruz |
We were exhausted by the time we got home and napped for a
little while before heading out for dinner.
I had intended to go to a seafood restaurant next to the highway, but it
was closed when we finally got there, so we continued on to Oso’s Oyster Bar
and ate shrimp enchiladas and listened to a very talented young Mexican couple
playing guitars and singing what were probably original songs.
February 5, 2015
We were a little worse for wear after the previous day of
sun and alcohol, so decided to spend another day lounging around the
house. My friends, Jan and Ramona, had
arrived in La Cruise with their boat, Jatimo. They hailed me after the morning
net. At midday I decided I needed to get
a little exercise, so I walked down to the marina to see them on my way to the
grocery store to stock up on beverages and bacon. They wanted to come up to see my place, so we
agreed that they would come over for drinks when they had finished their boat
chores. I did my shopping and bought us
a rotisserie chicken for lunch.
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| Jan and Ramona Enjoying My View |
Tiffany and I spent a quiet afternoon and then Jan and
Ramona arrived for happy hour. We
visited for a while and then all went out for fish tacos at the Ballena Blanca.
On our way home, Tiffany became worried about a dog that was
standing in the highway and herded her out of traffic and gave her a
scratch. She was a big, goofy dog that
looked like she might have been part Great Dane or possibly pit bull. Apparently, she was desperate for attention
because she followed us all the way home.
I didn’t let her in and hoped she would go away. She whined and barked outside our door for a
bit and then seemed to have left.
Around midnight, when I was trying to go to sleep, I noticed that the
neighborhood dogs were barking and there seemed to be a lot of commotion
downstairs. I looked out the window and
saw “our” dog down in the yard. People
were throwing water at her and trying to chase her away because the resident
dogs were barking at her. She ran up the
stairs to our level and, not wanting to disrupt the entire complex, I could
think of nothing to do except let her into my apartment.
The dog was very happy to be admitted and made herself right at
home. She headed for the kitchen, stood
up, and put her monstrous paws on my counter to see if there was anything up
there to eat. I had to put my trash in
the refrigerator. I cleaned the old
leftovers out of the fridge and made her something to eat. She scarfed the food and then curled up on
the couch. She was rather smelly, so I
was thankful she didn’t try to climb in bed with me.
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